The optimized scheduling for iron-making bulk ore blending process based on improved ant colony optimization

A discrete scheduling model for the iron-making bulk ore blending process was proposed by converting the process into a two stage assembly flow shop with sequence-depended setup times and limited intermediate buffer. To find the optimal solutions of this problem, an improved ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm was also proposed, in which a tabu timer is set for each ant to correct the feasible path set. And the efficiency and solution quality of this algorithm for solving this particular scheduling problem is convinced by the computational experiments.